Scrutiny Increases On Suspected Foreclosure Rescue Racket Allegedly Duping Financially Stressed, Confused Homeowners Into Signing Over Deeds To Homes

In West Palm Beach, Florida, The Palm Beach Post reports:

• Complaints are mounting against a Palm Beach County foreclosure­ rescue company accused in lawsuits and letters to state officials of defrauding desperate homeowners. The 3-year-old Nationwide Investment Firm promises to conduct short sales, obtain loan modifications or "negotiate with lenders to stall foreclosure," according to a contract attached to a Feb. 15 lawsuit filed in Palm Beach County.



• But clients allege in complaints to the Florida Attorney General's Office and court actions in Broward and Palm Beach counties that instead of getting the help they sought, they unwittingly signed over the deeds to their homes. Some claim they were then threatened with eviction and left with mortgage debt on properties to which they no longer have title.



• The Palm Beach Post first reported on Nationwide Investment Firm in November when five lawsuits within a year's time accused the company of fraud. Since then, at least two more lawsuits have been filed against it, two Broward residents are fighting eviction from the homes they deeded to the company, and a Port St. Lucie couple say they sought a refinance from Nationwide but ended up giving away their home in a flurry of paperwork they didn't understand.



• Property records show Nationwide has title to 65 homes in Palm Beach, Broward, Miami­-Dade, St. Lucie and Lee counties. "Imagine - we keep paying on the house and the house is not even ours," said Antoine Jean Francois of Port St. Lucie, who said he learned about the company from a commercial on a Haitian radio station.



• Nationwide's attorney, Kevin Fabrikant, said the clients knew what they were doing. "I believe they are lying," he said, adding that Nationwide has voluminous short-sale files on homes that prove it is working with banks to erase home­owner debt. "They knew they were signing away title to their property."



• Attached to two of the complaints sent to the attorney general are contracts, written in both English and Creole, that the homeowners signed saying that no one had induced them to sign a quit claim deed or sell the property.



• But West Palm Beach attorney Pierre St. Jean, who is representing a homeowner who filed suit last month, said people don't understand the consequences and are given nothing of value in return for their deed. "They (Nationwide) are looking for people who are inexperienced, confused, and in a frightened state of mind," he said.



• The Florida Office of Financial Regulation confirmed last week it was investigating the company's practices, but wouldn't comment further. Still, the firm continues to collect deeds. Two Palm Beach County homeowners signed over their properties in the first two months of 2012, according to records.



• Claims in the two most recent lawsuits filed in Palm Beach and Broward counties include fraud, unjust enrichment and violation of Florida loan modification regulations.



• In one attorney general complaint, a Margate woman said she was asked to pay Nationwide $1,400 per month after she sought short-sale help and signed over her deed. She moved, fearing eviction. Nationwide has since sold the home, which is in foreclosure, in a lease-to-own deal to another couple who gave the company $13,000 down on a $65,000 purchase price with an interest rate of 9.6 percent, according to a contract for deed filed with the Broward County clerk of court.



• Francois, the Port St. Lucie homeowner, wrote a letter in late November to the attorney general that he and his wife were told Nationwide has investors who would buy their home in a short sale and sell it back to them for its current value.



• It's a similar situation described in other complaints, including from one woman who filed a Boca Raton Police Department incident report in October. In that case, the homeowner said she remained in the house after deeding it to Nationwide and gave the firm $27,000 to buy the home back after a short sale. She said she made monthly payments to the company of between $1,170 and $1,300. That was two years ago, she said in the police report, and the homeowner believes a short sale was never initiated.

For more, see Complaints mount against Palm Beach County foreclosure rescue company accused of defrauding desperate homeowners.